Stellarvue F50 finder

Anyone use one of these? Is it worth the upgrade cost from an Orion 9x50 RACI? Or at that price point, would it be better to upgrade to a 70 or 80mm finder?

Consider FOV, weight...etc. I'm looking to move to an illuminated finder with easier focusing than the Orion.

I've got an F50.

I'd say it does well in terms of bang for the buck. It's nice that you can change eyepieces and focusing is easy, but it's still a 50mm f4 achromat.

Personally, I'd like to see someone bring out a 60mm apo finder that would fit in my 50mm finder bracket.

This pretty much says it all:

http://www.astromart.com/articles/article.asp?article_id=354

The achromat air spaced doublet is polished to optical accuracy (1/6th wave PTV). The fact that you can take this finderscope to to higher powers is nice but I admit I rarely take advantage of this feature. Stellarvue also makes an F80, but it is quite a bit heavier and admittedly is probably most appropriate for large SCT's and Dob's etc. Their newer F60 actually fits in the F50 finder rings. It has a slower achromat objective though, so the F50 will have better correction at the edges albeit with less light grasp.

David E

I use the F50 on my Meade SN8. It's decent for the price.

The 40mm finder that came on my LOMO 150MC is better, in spite of the aperture reduction.

The F50 is better in one way: you can change the mag by changing the EP. I usually run at 17X with a 12mm Plossl.

I also use a 10mm illuminated Celestron EP at times.

I will eventually mount my NHII on the SN8 and just clamp a laser in the finder scope mount. If you want a SERIOUS finder scope, an 80mm short tube refractor is the minimum scope, with a good 2" star diagonal, not an erecting prism. The cheap erecting prism causes noticeable image degradation in the F50, but good for the price. Far better than the crap finder that came on the SN8.

You need about 15X or more and a wide FOV to actually find things.

I've had one for a while now, bought from Anacortes, it's the newer version, and I like it a lot. It has a rotating back on it which is likely a huge plus for someone with a GEM mount. It also has a threaded hole that accepts an optional Rigel pulse light to light up the crosshairs. The crosshairs on mine, are actually very visible in my light polluted skies. They aren't thin wires, but are etched into a clear disk that floats in the middle, which is how it lights up (I tried with a red flashlight) when illuminated.

The optical quality is very good for something in this price range. The eyepiece is so-so quality, but it serves it's purpose well enough, and if you are interested in using std. 1.25" eyepieces they seem to all work pretty well. I have tried it with my WO UWANs and WO SPLs and all reach focus and work, however 82 deg FOV eyepieces quickly show that it has the expected amount of edge distortions for an F/4 50mm $119 product. It's NOT a telescope, yet it actually works quite well as one, or as a spotting scope since it is correct image viewing due to it's rather well made prism.

I'm in the process of writing a full review now, and it I weill be giving it a very good review, with only minor reservations. Watch for it soon on Astromart.

Hope this helps,

Timm